The Shepheard-Walwyn Podcast

Edi Bilimoria (Meet The Author) - Unfolding Consciousness

Today’s author is Dr Edi Bilimoria. Edi is joining us for what will become a series of conversations to celebrate and explore his extraordinary 4 volume 1200 page magnum opus, Unfolding Consciousness- Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans. 
Edi was born in India and was educated at the Universities of London, Sussex and Oxford.  Edi presents an unusual blend of experience in the field of science, engineering, art and philosophy. He’s worked as a consultant in many industries including oil and gas, aerospace, and construction. He's been a project manager and head of design for major innovative projects such as the Channel Tunnel, London Underground systems and offshore installations. A student at the perennial philosophy for over four decades, he has given courses and lectured extensively around the world. He has organised and chaired several major conferences, and his written work has been published extensively in the fields of science, engineering, and esoteric philosophy. On top of all of this, he is also a concert pianist. 
Unfolding Consciousness is the culmination of a life’s work and has already garnered much critical acclaim. 
In this interview, we explore his life story and how he came to write such a book.  It takes place at his house, and we finish with Edi playing his stunning Steinway grand piano.
 
Get your copy of Unfolding Consciousness (Whole Set): https://bit.ly/SW-UnfoldingConsciousness
www.shepheardwalwyn.com

Michael Hudson (Part II) - A Philosophy for a Fair Society

Hello and welcome to the Shepheard Walwyn podcast series. My name is Jonathan Brown.  Shepheard Walwyn is a campaigning book publisher based in London, England.  Our purpose is to uncover and promote new ideas to society’s oldest problems. Whilst our specialty is ethical economics, something Anthony Werner, our driving force for over 40 years has pioneered, we have branched out over the years to other related areas such as the environment and the lives and work of society’s change agents. 
These podcasts promote ideas we are convinced can actually help us to build a better society for all of us. So have a listen and be sure to share with your friends if you like them and tell us what you think – these are debates we all need to be a part of. 
Welcome to Part Two of our interview with Michael Hudson, perhaps the world’s most influential, (but rarely acknowledged), economist. In the first episode, we looked at how economics got corrupted from industrial economics, where people made money by making things to a finance economy where a small elite group makes money by manipulating financial instruments.  
In this episode, we dig into Michael’s most famous work, Super Imperialism, the Economic Strategy of the American Empire. In this book, first published in 1972, Michael described how the USA was able to force the world to use the US dollar as its default international currency – the so-called ‘dollarisation’ of the world economy which accelerated in the 1960s to today.  We also look at the reverse which is happening as we speak - the rapidly accelerating de-dollarisation due to US actions against Russia and China. Essentially this is where economies around the world stop using the US dollar as their trading and reserve currency and start using other currencies instead in terms of impact. This change may be the most important economic event since the Second World War.  Here are the time stamps for the conversation. 
 
Get A Philosophy for a Fair Society eBook (Amazon): https://amzn.to/3srolCt
Now available in a bundle, get it with a deducted price here: https://bit.ly/swclassics
www.shepheardwalwyn.com

Michael Hudson (Part I) - A Philosophy for a Fair Society

Welcome to the Shepheard-Walwyn Podcast and a two part interview with Michael Hudson, perhaps to the world’s most influential (but rarely acknowledged) economist. Michael has had a remarkable career starting off as a practical or reality-based economist working for a variety of institutions looking and how banks really behave. He looked at the balance of payments economics for David Rockefeller at Chase Manhattan Bank; worked for Herman Kahn at the Hudson Institute, and advised the US State Department on how they could fund the Vietnam War when the gold was running out. He now advises the Chinese Government on how to maintain an industrial economy and avoid the traps the US Finance economy has fallen into.
Michael’s most famous work is Super Imperialism, the Economic Strategy of American Empire but has also written extensively on ancient economies in the Near East. He is one of our longest running writers having co-written the soon to be re-released eBook, A Philosophy for a Fair Society with Kris Feder and the late GJ Miller and. Incidentally, this book is a great introduction to his whole body of work so do check it out!
In this first episode we looked at how economics got corrupted from industrial economics where people made money by making things, to a finance economy where a small elite group makes money by manipulating financial instruments.  There’s some meaty topics but I promise it’s worth your time. 
 
Get A Philosophy for a Fair Society eBook (Amazon): https://amzn.to/3srolCt
Now available in a bundle, get it with a deducted price here: https://bit.ly/swclassics
www.shepheardwalwyn.com

Fred Harrison - Corruption of Economics 2nd edition

Today we welcome Fred Harrison back to the podcast. In this interview, we talk about The Corruption of Economics, a book Fred co-wrote with the late, great Professor Mason Gaffney (with an additional contribution from Dr. Kris Feder.  Corruption was released in 1994 but as part of our focus on the classics in the Shepheard-Walwyn library we are re-releasing it as an eBook with a new introduction from Fred.
Whilst it may seem that a book published in 1994 may not have much to say about today’s economic and political challenges, we hope you’ll hear in this podcast how relevant it is to the challenges we face today.
The papers are currently crammed with the Russian oligarchs and how unfair they are. All this is true but it’s no more true than our oligarchs. In this podcast, Fred explains why we have an economic system and philosophy that guarantees the creation of oligarchs and that the same things that were done over 100 years ago to eliminate Henry George and the fairer economic ideas from the textbooks were done in Russia in the 1990s to ensure that Russia did not create a fairer economic system but that they had a “shock therapy” approach that created gross income inequality. Fast forward 30 years and we are chasing Russian billionaires around the Mediterranean trying to take their super-yachts from them.
 
Please note, that although the paperback copies are out of stock currently, The Corruption of Economics is only available on eBook: https://amzn.to/3O5CI8h
Now available in a bundle, get it with a deducted price here: https://bit.ly/swclassics
www.shepheardwalwyn.com

John Butler (Part II) - The Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment

Welcome to the third and final installment of our interview with John Butler, the 84 year old YouTube sensation and author of the Shepheard-Walwyn book Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment. Now, this conversation carries on from our last one. And we start off with one of John's most famous stories, which was when he was eating his favourite pig, or recycling love as he describes it. He also looks at the difference between sinners and consumers. Are they the same thing? And we also ponder his famous adage “to make whole, be whole”. We look at the upside of failure and depression. And we finish with the funniest additional information ever written on a CV.
We begin with asking John about eating his favourite pig!
 
For previous episodes please go to:
John Butler (Meet The Author) - The Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment
John Butler (Part I) - The Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment

John Butler (Part I) - The Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment

This week we continue our conversation with John Butler, 84 year old YouTube sensation and author of Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment.
In this conversation, we explore the experiences he writes about in the first part of Wonders. We explore his relationship with nature, his time as one of the first organic farmers in the 1960s and collaborated with people like EF Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful and Lady Balfour, co-founder of the Soil Association.
We also get into how he sees his spiritual work as an evolution of his farming work.
This conversation follows on from our meet the author interview that took place in his favourite church in Bakewell. To continue we made our way to the top of John’s favourite hill just outside Bakewell. This gave us some wind and insect noise so apologies in advance for that. The place has held a special meaning for john since he was a boy so I begin the interview by asking where he’s taken us and what the place means to him.
 
For previous episodes please go to:
John Butler (Meet The Author) - The Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment
John Butler (Part I) - The Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment
www.shepheardwalwyn.com

Dominic Frisby Part 4 - Getting robbed, crypto, and taxation

Welcome to the final instalment of the Dom Frisby interview.  In this conversation we discuss the challenges facing governments around the world and the rise of what some call the “Sovereign individual” also known as the digital nomad.
We consider the implications of increasing government spending with reduced tax revenues.
We look at what countries can do to maintain or even increase tax revenue when those who generate the most (taxable) income can move between borders seemingly at will to avoid them. This then leads us to a discussion of crypto currencies.
Dom was an early adopter in the space writing what I believe was the first book on bitcoin with a major publisher.  In spite of this, we find out why Dom isn’t worth hundreds of millions of dollars today (even though his investments should be). It’s a heart breaker!
We then finish with what Dom is working on now - essentially an innovative audio experience/musical book and a new way to for him to help investors.
 
We hope you have enjoyed this series of podcasts with Dom Frisby.
Be sure to check out the links on this podcast. Check out Dom’s material on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B00G4A3MM8?
His free YT channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoneyandMarketswithDominicFrisby
Be sure to check out Dom’s comedy here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Frizzers
And his new subscription service on gold, crypto and other investment ideas: https://frisby.substack.com/
 
Until next time, keep thinking!

Dominic Frisby Part 3 - Why is Government the most Expensive Thing you can Buy?

Welcome to part three of the interview with Dom Frisby. I am your host Jonathan Brown.
In this podcast we continue our conversation with investor comedian about how Dom measures freedom by the size of the government.
 
Check out Dom’s material on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B00G4A3MM8?
His free YT channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoneyandMarketswithDominicFrisby
Be sure to check out Dom’s comedy here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Frizzers
And his new subscription service on gold, crypto and other investment ideas: https://frisby.substack.com/

Dominic Frisby Part 2 - What does real capitalism look like? Adam Smith and the Edinburgh Fringe

Welcome back to the podcast. I am your host Jonathan Brown. Today we continue our conversation with Dom Frisby. We move the conversation into Dom’s great documentary about Adam Smith and the Edinburgh fringe – essentially an exploration of how individuals can self organise to create brilliance than the elite can plan it.  We then take a look at Dom’s views on education and how we can create much more space for choice and self-organising.
I then look at Dom’s free documentary about Adam Smith and give some pointers on what to look out for.
Some thoughts on watching Dom’s excellent documentary on Adam Smith.
We talk about Dom’s documentary in this part of the talk. I encourage you to watch it and to consider there are things you could do to increase individual actions and choice in your community. The Fringe was founded due to restrictions on who was allowed to perform at the Edinburgh Festival. If you weren’t posh enough, if you weren’t worthy as determined by the organisers you weren’t allowed to take part. So, the first acts went there – at their own cost – and offered something they felt people would like to see – and they were right. 
It's easy to get into the weeds with Smith and the classical economists but Dom’s work makes it much clearer. So look at how the Fringe developed to become the economy and how one comedian managed to change the economics and format of the Fringe forever – and how finding a way to give away your service (in this case a comedy act) meant people were finally able to make money.
It starts with putting Adam Smith in context. Whilst he’s credited with effectively founding English-speaking economics, his work is rarely studied anymore. Smith is like Darwin: people quote him but hardly anyone has read the actual work.
Fascinatingly, Smith wrote A Theory of Moral Sentiments as an advertisement for his lecture series. He also talks about how Smith was able to travel around Europe learning from some of the greatest thinkers in Europe.
There are some great interviews with some of the UK’s top comedians and the most popular acts at the Fringe. At the heart though is a model for entrepreneurial action and how economies can self regulate.
 
You can watch Dom’s ode to Adam Smith and the Edinburgh Fringe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6e6TpIrba0&t=48s
What’s also worth a listen is how the film came about and how the problem of centrally planned media is still alive and well. Entrepreneurship is essentially problem solving or “scratching your own itch” and finding a market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gTmk7e1aRM
His free investment focused YT channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoneyandMarketswithDominicFrisby
Also, be sure to check out Dom’s comedy here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Frizzers
Maybe is one of my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shhueskb7zE
If you get chance to see him live, he’s a hoot and the crowd’s pretty decent too!
Also subscribe to his newsletter – he’s been a lot busier than expected since the crisis in Ukraine: https://frisby.substack.com/
There’s a free version so go with that first.